I was testing on a dual 1.7Ghz Xeon. I tried auto-complete many times that session… other sessions were a bit faster, still slower than Eclipse, and still “dumb” in terms of the suggestions offered. Eclipse is much better at code completion because it is more sensitive to the context. It offers local variables and accessible classes that “fit” better at the top of the list… like classes that can be safely cast to the type needed etc.
[quote]It does that because it shows you an alphabetic list of matches. You can the further refine the search by keeping hiting keys while the code completion window is up.
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Same with Eclipse, but it is much faster, and has the most likely matches at the top of the list.
[quote]Thank god for that. Auto-correct things suck IMO.
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One key to add throw declarations or wrap code in a try-catch block, or add a cast, or add stubs to implement an interface, or add a method to a different class from that point that you would want to call it from the current class you are editing… All major speed-ups and typo-avoidance features… all with the same key press. No need to memorize a zillion different fancy key presses.
[quote]You may be making some comfusion here. Nb detects and install src.jar automaticaly, but it gives the user the freedom to select the javadoc dirs from where to read javadocs. There is no need to parse src.jar for docs because they are already parsed and available for download from Sun.
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No confusion. NB requires more disk space and another trip to java.sun.com to get the docs when Eclipse gets if from Src.jar directly and faster.
[quote]I think i want to avoid that, personaly.
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I use edit-and-continue all the time… it is yet another time saver. At least I CAN use it with Eclipse.
[quote]Mmmm ?
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I mean Eclipse has more refactoring options out of the box, and the refactoring works with the source control plugins so that when classes are moved or renamed the source control repository is kept up to date with the changes automatically.
[quote]But really i think these are all minor details can be added with plug-ins if people want that stuff in the first place.
Stuff like auto-correction and editing code while debuging is very dangerous. I have been misleaded by it many times and i prefer to do it myself than to have the IDE messing with my code. The last time i used Eclipse in a school work for cg and tried to debug my code i have serious problems with ide crashes, so i prefer the classic way of doing things.
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If you don’t use the features then you won’t miss them obviously. I use them all the time and find they really improve productivity.
I totally loath the “Editor Abbreviations” -always screwing up the code as you type. I’m forced to turn them off altogether and lose editing speed or do quirky things like know to type shift-space after various arbitrary variable names to avoid bogus syntax errors that the IDE puts in the code. Eclipse handles the same sort of feature with the same “complete” key used to complete all other code. It knows from the context what keywords make sense. And Eclipse NEVER AUTOMATICALLY PUTS SYNTAX ERRORS INTO MY CODE!
I don’t mean to be praising Eclipse and bashing NetBeans. To be truthful I WANT to use NetBeans, just in protest over the wast of time that is SWT. 
But NetBeans is too much of a step backwards. More keystrokes to learn just to work quickly with the basic features, slower, irritating etc.
Eclipse does have it’s quirks - the workspace concept can be limiting for example. But it just does most of the routine stuff so much better. I’m glad to see that NetBeans is paying attention though. Competition in this area pays off for us developers.
OK fair enough I’m using the milestone versions but some of them are really bloody irritating and don’t seem to want to go away and the way the UI jerks and judders under GC annoys me too.